For the past few weeks, we've been reporting on the new Guatemalan map which would depict Belize as a part of their territory, separated only by a single dotted line, to indicate the ongoing dispute between both countries about Belize's territorial sovereignty.
The map is scheduled to be printed in books by the Guatemalan Ministry of Education to be used in its schools, and more significantly than that is that this map will become the image on the upcoming Guatemalan passports – millions of them which are tendered to be printed.
This image which shows Belize as part of Guatemalan territory has caused outrage in the Belizean public, and today, the People's United Party issued their position on actions that the country and the Government of Belize should take to protest its use.
This evening, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, one of the deputy leaders of the party, spoke to us about those actions that they propose that GOB should take.
Here's how she explained it:
Hon. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia - Deputy Party Leader, PUP
"In discussion with our executives, we unanimously agree that first of all, a PUP Government will of course refuse to accept a Guatemalan Passport showing Belize as a part of Guatemala. And we would not allow entry into our country to any person holding such a passport showing Belize as a part of Guatemala and we would want to urge the present UDP Government to do the same because we believe that defending our territorial integrity and our nationality is of extreme importance. We also are saying that should Guatemala persist in issuing passports showing Belize as a part of the Guatemalan map, then Belize as a principled position, should refuse to attend the meeting of the Organization of American States which is slated to take place in Guatemala this year. Because we believe that we would be lending support of a mockery of our territorial integrity.
Then thirdly, as a consequence of that we would be lobbying friendly countries especially CARICOM where we get the base of the international support for Belize and of course other friendly countries not to confine ourselves to CARICOM but we would like for Belize to lobby friendly countries to stand in solidarity with us and to also boycott that meeting. Belize has always respected the process, we have always participated in the process, we have always bent over backwards to make sure that we as a country are doing our part to put unfounded claim by Guatemala behind us." As we've reported, season observers have said that Guatemala has stepped up its campaign to maintain a strong legal position leading up to these simultaneous ICJ referendums in both countries".
But as we told you last night, even this agreement is on shaky grounds because the Guatemalan Foreign Minister has gone to Washington to meet with the OAS Secretary General about possibly postponing it to a later date. Later on in the news we'll revisit the signing of the special agreement in 2008 when Guatemala agreed to the referendum date.
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